Public policing used to be a low-status and underpaid occupation. Until modern times, police recruits typically had no qualifications other than military service; thugs and former criminals also were hired, in keeping with the common beliefs that “it takes a thief to catch a thief” and that one need not be educated to wield a stick. (In 19th-century France a former convict, François Vidocq, rose to the position of chief of the public safety brigade, whose mission was to infiltrate the criminal milieus and to arrest notorious offenders.) Not surprisingly, underpaying the police resulted in massive corruption, particularly in the urban police forces of the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, police corruption remains a severe problem in countries where policing is still considered a lowly occupation—that is, in almost every country except the Western-style democracies (including Japan). In the latter countries, 20th-century reformers transformed policing into a professional occupation that commanded decent wages and public respect. Careers in these police forces can even be lucrative, especially for those in the top echelons. In North America, police recruits of large-city police forces can embark on their careers in their early 20s and retire in their early 50s as top managers with sizable pensions. Many then undertake new careers as chiefs of small-town police forces, as officials in other public-service departments, or as managers of private security companies.

The police recruiting system used in Anglo-Saxon countries differs from that used in continental Europe. In such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, nearly all recruits enter at the lowest level of the organization, regardless of their educational background. They may be promoted during their career on the basis of performance assessments and competitive examinations. In the United Kingdom the most able among the younger officers are selected for a 12-month course at the national police training college at Bramshill, where they divide their time between on-the-job training and study. However, training at Bramshill does not guarantee promotion, and Bramshill graduates who subsequently join other police forces still must start at the bottom of those organizations.

The situation is different in continental Europe, particularly in France, where police forces use a dual system of recruitment: entrants may start their careers at the base of the organization and progressively rise higher, or they may use lateral entry for an appointment at the commissaire (“commissioner”) level. The channel of lateral entry is reserved for applicants with a university degree, generally in law or political science; after their selection, they are trained at the national academy for police commissioners.

Lateral entry is the rule for the highest positions in the police organizations of both continental Europe and North America. In France the government directly appoints the chief of the National Police, who may be a civil servant without a police background. In Canada and the United States, chiefs of police or their top assistants are directly appointed by the relevant political authority. After the September 11 attacks, the New York City Police Department directly appointed persons from the intelligence community and the armed forces to head its intelligence and counterterrorism departments.

Most police forces are unionized, though there are important exceptions—e.g., the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the largest Canadian police force. As in the case of recruitment, there are two basic models for police unions, one used in Anglo-Saxon countries and the other used in continental Europe.

In many Anglo-Saxon countries, or in some jurisdictions within those countries, police unions have long been forbidden. To circumvent such prohibitions, police in these areas created brotherhoods, benevolent organizations, and other associations that performed the role of a labor union. As a result, for most police forces in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, there is a single body acting as a union to which both rank-and-file personnel and their supervisors belong. In periods of conflict with top managers—who usually are not members of the labor association—mid-level officers must choose between their duty to obey the top managers and their loyalty to the labor association; usually they choose the latter. The customary alliance between rank-and-file officers and their supervisors has given such associations considerable clout; little change can be effected in police forces without at least their partial assent. Police associations in the United States also act as brokers in the private employment of public police. For example, organizers of large events might ask the police association to provide a certain number of police officers to keep order. The officers are then compensated on a private basis through the association.

In continental Europe the tradition of organized labor is much older. Governments did not oppose the creation of police unions, which were modeled on existing unions in industry and some professions. As a result, rank-and-file police do not generally belong to the same association as their supervisors; in France, for example, there are separate unions for the rank and file and for commissioners. It is actually in France that the incipient forms of police labor unions first appeared. In 1855 police commissioners stated their demands regarding working conditions in the Journal des commissaires. French commissioners finally created an official labor organization to represent them in 1906. It is one of the oldest police unions, if not the oldest.